04/10/2007

Japanese iTunes

So now that I have list of Jpop and Jrock songs (thanks, everyone!), I want to collect the media. Right now I've got a lot of low-quality videos from Youtube and Daily Motion that at least let me hear the song. But I want decent-quality MP3s of this stuff. Should be easy, just go to iTunes Japan, right?

Oh, if only it were that easy. But for some reason known only to the Apple overlords, only customers with billing addresses in Japan can purchase songs in the iTunes Japan music store. There is a work around, of course - American otaku are not to be daunted by such a small obstacle.

But it's irritating, from a philosophical standpoint, that customers outside of Japan can't use the internet to buy a digital download. Doesn't that seem backwards to you?

In any case I have ordered my prepaid iTunes card and will be soon using my aunt's address in Ibaraki to start downloading awesome Japanese music.

It is artifical market segregation by location, and appears to be done purely for commercial purposes - i.e. greed.

They do it in Europe too (charging more in the UK than other European countries for the same tracks), although this is apparently in contravention of EU laws on open markets. People are beginning to realise this and starting to complain, so hopefully the courts will solve the problem eventually - in our little corner of the world, at least.

It's not some mad conspiracy. It's mainly an issue of distribution rights. Apple can't sell Japanese music in regions they don't have the distribution rights for. I've seen the same thing just between the US and Canada where a Canadien artist is under one label in Canada and under a different one in the US. It gets even worse for movie and TV content as the parties involved in production are much larger, thus negotiations are much more convoluted and complex.

Hi, in case it helps anyone, I have Japanese iTunes cards (1500 yen)for sale on eBay starting at $14.00; the title of the listing is
'Japan iTunes 1500 Yen Card, Free Digital Delivery' ,
listed in category: Music > Digital Music Downloads > Other ;

Not only is this backward, it is actually illegal, since, due to exchange rates, users who want to 'buy from abroad' are restricted from doing so.
The European Court has found this to be contravening consumer rights, and fined Apple Inc, and it's wholly owned subsidiary, Itunes, which is based in Luxembourg.
Apple claim that this was because of a clause in it's contract with one of the big four record companies, EMI. I've seen the contract, and yes, EMI forced Apple's hand in this matter.
So EMI got fined too.

I know this because I actually worked on the appeal case on behalf of one of the companies but this information is also in the publlic domain.

Anyway, the main thing is, expect this cross-border restriction to disappear any day now.